The Dialectic of Flowers and Death: The Symbolism of Life and Death in "Ophelia" from an Iconographic Perspective

Abstract

"Ophelia" is a paragon of "returning to nature" achieved through Millais's phase of sketching. It is centered on Ophelia, the tragic female character from Shakespeare's "Hamlet." Through highly realistic natural depictions and meticulously designed visual symbols, Millais constructs a beautiful world full of poetic and death metaphors. Based on Panofsky's iconographic theory, this paper decodes the imagery of "flowers" and "death" in the painting through the lenses of semiotics and psychoanalysis, exploring their dialectical relationship of life and death and the cultural codes behind them.